Tour de Fleece - Day 21

I haven't had much time for spinning lately, as was to be expected with all the stuff that's going on. We spent the past weeks renovating, and I spent the last two days studying for my exams and trying to squeeze in some house time (renovating again, and also getting some bills in order) in the evenings. Today was reserved for shop work, but I watched some documentations about Ancient Egypt while spinning :-) Twisted and some other friends gave them to me years ago, and I had already forgotten a lot, so it was nice to watch them again. It felt reasonable to combine spinning with some kind of learning/revising stuff that might be helpful. But enough about my studies, I'm going to show you the yarns :-)

 I carded some batts first thing in the morning and hoped to be able to spin them all up, which was indeed the case. I love the colours of all of them!

 Snow Daisies

I always love to use white fibres because their quality is somehow different than the dyed variety. Also, I don't have any dyed bluefaced leicester wool the texture of which is heavenly, so I like to use the pure white stuff. I combined it with only a small amount of green and yellow merino, shiny white alpaca and white lambs wool, and I spun in shimmering snowflake sequins and textile daisies. There's also a bit of commercial eyelash yarn in this one, and I used mother of pearl thread for even more of a shimmering, snowy touch.

This one is still without a name. I was thinking of naming it Koi Pond, but I think Twisted had a yarn once with this name, so I might want to use a different one. Maybe Sparkling Koi would be good since there is a lot of heavenly, peacock angelina (glitter) in this one. It's light fingering or even lace weight, though it looks sturdier in the picture.

 Bubble Gum

I'm not entirely satisfied with the name, maybe I'll think of something else. Bubble Bath is already taken, though the Bubble Bath yarn would also make a great Bubble Gum yarn due to its colour *g* Both the bubble yarns glow in the dark and feature these cute little glittery pompoms.

The Skull Scarf

I had looked forward to the Tour de Fleece so much - but since I have had some problems with stress and inner pressure lately, I have decided to drop out. I was on sick leave last week and didn't even feel up to spinning, so I took the yarn I spun on day 2 and knitted it up. Sitting on the sofa, watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer (which I somehow missed when I was young, so I felt I had to close that gap in education ;-)) and knitting did me good and I feel much better now :-)

(please click for a larger version!)

I love how the scarf turned out, and I'm looking forward to giving it to a friend as a birthday present. In fact, this wasn't the only thing I knitted last week. I made a hat and a pair of wrist warmers from a skein of beautiful corespun art yarn I had spun for myself quite a long time ago, and I started the Tempest Cowl (using my own handspun lace yarn in teals and a little blue, black and bright turquoise), aaaand I made two dice bags, also intended as presents. Oh - and the reason I was finally able to knit again and to have fun doing it, is that I *finally* finished the Scarf of Horror about two or three weeks ago. Now I am free to knit things for myself, and I am so happy about it! Now the only thing I have to do is take some decent photos to show you what I've done :-)

It really felt good to sit around, watch cheap TV shows, and do nothing "useful" for once. Being self-employed it turns out I have some problems integrating breaks into my daily routine, so this last week was a kind of enforced and very necessary holiday. And you know what? I am now looking forward to working again - but I'll try to reduce the inner pressure. 

I hope you are all well :-)

Feature - Tour de Fleece - Halloween

There's quite a lot of news :-) First of all, we're very proud and happy to have been chosen for a feature on My Day is Friday. We documented one of our days for you, complete with text and photos, which you can read and look at here. Morrgan, thank you so much for the opportunity, we had lots of fun documenting! :-)

Last week, I had a new idea for Halloween ghosts, so I prepared them and spun them into a yarn. There's gorgeous black and violet fibre in it, as well as some glow in the dark fibre, and - of course - the little cloth ghosts. Here's a quick peek until I can take better photos:

Halloween is still a while off, but I just love creating new Halloween yarns, and I think you can never start too early ;-)

Then, there's the Tour de Fleece which started yesterday. Since I've been feeling a little under the weather lately, I didn't spin yesterday and I might not be able to participate every day, but I will try. Today, I spun a yarn which I'll be knitting into a scarf for a good friend:

And now, I'm off to watch the rest of today's game of the Women's World Cup. By the way - do any of you follow the WWC?

Odds and Ends

There's nothing new, really, I just wanted to let you know we haven't forgotten our blog readers ;-)

I still can't spin on a wheel, but I'm feeling a lot better and can walk again, though not without pain.

We won't be able to participate in the Tour de Fleece this year, because we'll be on vacation. Which reminds me: we will close the shop for about two and a half weeks (starting Thursday morning, our time zone), so if you need some yarn before we leave, be quick ;-)

I'm planning a new knitting project to take with me to Norway (yes, that's where we'll be going :-)) and have decided on the Myrtle Leaf Shawl (ravelry link) from Victorian Lace Today. I'll be using handspun and hand dyed dark greenish/blueish icelandic wool which has been lying around for a few months now. Hopefully I'll make enough progress to show you when I return. But I also need to work on the Scarf of HoRRoR, so we'll see... ;-)

I have taken advantage of my non-spinning situation by creating this beautiful shawl pin from hammered silver wire:

...which I have then bartered for delicious redcurrant and elderflower/orange jelly :-) I had registered for a German trading forum previously, that's where the trade took place. I already have a request for another pin like this and I'll be swapping it for handmade glass beads I can spin into yarn. I hope to show them to you when I get back!

We'll be back at the end of July - take care and be creative! :-)

Tour de Hat? Hat de Fleece? Whatever - Gorgeous Hat made from Art Yarn ;-)

We really love to see what other people make from our yarns, as we can hardly emphasize often enough ;-) Today, we're very happy to show you another wonderful item!

Kat, who had already sent pictures of what she made from our blog giveaway yarn, has made a gorgeous hat from the yarn I spun for the Tour de Fleece on Day 4. She has sent pictures of her daughter wearing it, and has kindly allowed us to share them with you - so here they are:

Thank you so much, Kat! And please thank your daughter for us, too.

This was the skein of yarn the hat was made from, by the way:

If any of you want to show the world what you have made from our yarns, please send your photos to info123 @ 321weirdandtwisted.com (after removing the numbers and blanks), and we will be very happy to blog them! Please state the name you'd like us to mention in the blog post, and if you have a website, ravelry page, blog or shop, please let us know so we can link back to you :-)

Punk Rock Fairy Transformed

A while ago, Liz - a fellow Etsian who makes amazing neck pieces from yarn (and other things) - bought my Punk Rock Fairy, one of the art yarns I spun during the Tour de Fleece. A very short time later she kindly provided me with pictures of what she had made from it and allowed me to show them to you, our much appreciated readers :-)


The Punk Rock Fairy has been
transformed into a gorgeous
set of three
which Liz named
The Handyman:
A neckpiece, a pair of earrings,
and a pair of half gloves.






I really like all the extra screw nuts and metal discs :-)

If you're interested, be quick and visit Ginkocreation!

TdF - Weird's Day 20

Actually, this freshly spun yarn should have been finished yesterday, seeing that this was my challenge yarn. However, I had to work the whole day and didn't manage to finish it. But now here it is - my Athena Yarn, inspired by and named after the greek Goddess.


(please click to enlarge)
161 m, 111 g, about 9-11 wpi.

I had carded the batts on monday (the rest day, but I assumed it meant rest from spinning only ;-)) and was really looking forward to spinning them. They consisted of green and brown merino, light green merino/tussah silk blend, hand dyed silk and golden angelina. My challenge was to create a more interesting yarn, as I think my spinning has become a little too even recently. Nothing wrong with an even yarn, but for one thing I don't want to become lazy and for another thing, I do like coils and other means of creating texture and I very much like interestingly textured yarn. I also wanted to put in lots of stuff: organza ribbons of brown and green, leafy ribbons (also of brown and green), gemstone beads (mossy agate, pyrite, bronze-coloured freshwater pearls) and golden owl charms I got specially for an Athena yarn (which I had planned quite some time ago).

Due to creating so much texture, this yarn took a while longer, but it is worth every minute! There are coiled parts, fatter parts where the accompanying thread winds around the fibre, even a few corespun parts and, of course, the parts where the different ribbons have been spun in. I very much like the outcome, though there is a little problem: the owls have quite sharp egdes and three of them have already fallen off, probably having broken the fine accompanying thread. I won't be able to sell this with a good conscience unless I find a way to secure the charms. I don't mind keeping this yarn, as I really love it, but I have so many art yarn objects already and don't know when to wear them all ;-)

TdF - Weird's Day 18

I have to admit: I don't really like pink and white. I mean, I do like the yarns I make (even the candy flower one ;-)) and I like looking at some yarns I'd never use/wear myself because they're simply gorgeous. I often make a point of spinning something I wouldn't want to wear myself - for one thing, I like to stay flexible and exhaust all the options. For another thing, I think it's great to spin something my customers love. Oh - and it's not as hard to sell the yarns I like but don't desperately love ;-) However, after spinning white and pink stuff I needed a change, so here's my contribution for day 18 of the Tour de Fleece. 94 m/74 g of gorgeous, dark yarn with black ribbons, metal discs and screw nuts. I do love the colours! ;-)

TdF - Weird's Day 16

This was a hell of a week (still re-organizing, cleaning, working, preparing a birthday party, celebrating), so I wasn't able to spin as much as I would have liked. However, I finished one more yarn and I do hope there will be more time during the next week.

TQ's lame excuse for the last days of the Tour de Fleece

Well. At first, there was work. Much work. Really much work. In two days, I managed to work for about 25 hours, not counting the time it took to travel to different locations. And I can tell you, I was quite dead after those two days.

Which brings me to my second excuse: I was working my way through the choreography of "Thriller"!



I always wanted to learn the "Thriller" moves, and now I found the website thrill the world, and there it was! All the steps and moves layed out in front of me, ready to be learned! How could I resist!? Well, I mean, I didn't try too hard. ;-)

It took me two weeks to get all the different moves, poses and stuff, but it's been so much fun! I'm almost done with the choreography, I just need to polish over some parts and get my brain to remembering the right order.

TDF - Weird's excuse for day 12 ;-)

No, I haven't given up ;-) It was a busy week (again) and I still have to finish the yarn I started on day 11. I'll do that today, but I don't know if I'll be able to take photos before tomorrow.
On day 12, however, I had to work the whole day - and afterwards we went to the cinema to see the new Harry Potter movie! :-) Fantastic, it was!



I'd really like to spin another Harry Potter inspired art yarn - or maybe more than one, at that ;-)

TDF - Weird's Day 8

I've finally finished my Silver Wedding yarn:
merino and bamboo, white irisdescent thread, silver fabric roses and strips, freshwater pearls and leafy ribbons.
300 m, 170 g.
It took quite a while, but was worth every minute. I think this has to be the longest art yarn with this kind of stuff in it I've ever spun. I really like it :-)

Please visit my Flickr page for more photos!

The funny thing about it all: I found my own wedding dress today. I haven't bought it yet, but will go back to the shop on monday and buy it then. It's red though, not white! ;-)

TDF - Weird's Day 6

I didn't get any work done yesterday: I had to work at the excavation the whole day and spent a lovely evening with my fiancé afterwards :-) I haven't spun very much today, either, since I am still in the process of rearranging the flat (in order to get more room for my stash *yaay*) and I am also still studying for the exam tomorrow. However, I assembled some material for my Silver Wedding yarn and started spinning.

Oh - and I haven't mentioned my crazy news yet: I have ordered and received a new spinning wheel!!! :-) A foldable Kromski Sonata (with all the flyers available), to take with me to spinning meetings and on vacation. I have long wanted a traveller's wheel and when I found out that there's a jumbo flyer available for the Sonata, nothing could stop me ;-) My mother agreed to pay half of it, as a birthday gift and I generously decided to present myself with the other half *g* Strictly speaking, I am not allowed to use my new wheel until monday, but who can be so strict with themselves? Anyway, this is not the wheel I'll be keeping since it is slightly damaged, so I think I can persuade myself to use the *um* "borrowed" wheel today while I wait for an undamaged one to arrive :-D
I will (hopefully) be able to take some photos soon.

TDF - Weird's Day 4

Merino/silk blend, organza ribbons, textile flowers, shiny sewing thread - 170 m, 106 g, about 12 wpi. Not bad, I think :-)

A twisted second, wait, third day

So, Weird already posted her yarns for the third day of the Tour de Fleece. And now, finally, at ten past ten am CET, here is mine!

I have to say, it was tough work today. I had a busy day at work, and I din't want to miss a day on the Tour, so I spun anyway. And it took soooo long... Well, but here it is!

TDF - Weird's Day 3

As mentioned in the comments to Twisted's announcement of our joining the Tour de Fleece, I have joined the Team Lantern Rouge 2009. Today, I finished a yarn I had started quite a while ago: Morticia, inspired by Morticia of the Addams Family.

It has been spun from a hand carded batt of black alpaca, white bamboo, hand dyed lambs wool of different shades of violet and lots of violet angelina. I've also added some glow fibre, so some of the white parts will glow in the dark :-)


I've also been treasure-hunting, ending up with wonderful stuff: silver fabric roses for a silver wedding yarn, and some yards of a leafy ribbon (white, brown and green) I had wanted to buy for more than a year, now (somehow, they never had the green kind, but today I got lucky!). I also bought some new flowers - roses of pink and red, anemones of white - last saturday. As I mentioned earlier, I buy textile flowers whenever possible ;-)

Tour de Fleece - we're on!

Yes, I know, I know. We're one day late. But well, we had to buy some furniture to better stash our stash, and it had to be yesterday! So, sadly, there was no time for spinning this Saturday.

But: We now joined the Tour de Fleece! "Twisted" from Weird&Twisted aka TrashQueen aka Christine aka me joined three teams on Ravelry: Team Germany, Team Twitter (as I'm a fanatic twitterer), and, of course, Breakaways, the art yarn team!

And today, I tried to make up for missing the first day of the tour. So here are my yarns!






Yes, you've seen correctly: This is another glow-in-the-dark yarn! It's a corespun one, with a fluorescent thread in the center, luxury fibers like cashmere, merino wool and bamboo fluffily wrapped around it! It's so light and soft! :-)

And: There are these big, beautiful vintage lace blossoms, spun right into the yarn. I really like how it turned out!




This is a rather punky one. Black alpaca, combined with merino wool in rosé, dark red, violet and some bamboo in shiny white - and tons of sequins in black and red!

So, that were the first two yarns for the Tour de Fleece. Stay tuned for LOTS more! :-)